At 05:00 PM 11/8/97 -0600, Jack Cross wrote: >I want to thank Bridgett for get this group back on line as many times I >have been writing to Billie but wanted to get input from the rest of the >coordinators. Jack you're welcome, but getting this list up to begin with or rather requesting this list be established this time was through our National Coordinator, Megan Zurawicz. All I did was to get people subscribed to it. Anne Hood, wrote in about the way the reply to works, I received a message from Billie wondering if could go back to replying to all. This was requested a couple of days ago, and apparently implimented. On another note regarding replies, the SMARTLIST program cannot override a command sent in by the person's own mailing application. I don't know how AOLer's can do this but if you use Eudora you can put in your configuration in a box that says Reply to: your e-mail address and then it will override what SMARTLIST does with the reply to messages. Shoot, I think I just mixed up myself <G> > >The reason for moving each county into it's own subdirectory is two-fold. >One it just makes housekeeping a lot easier plus eventually it may permit >each coordinator to upload their own files. This is correct. Although the capability to FTP for all coordinators isn't in place yet. From my understanding it is being worked on. > >One question I do have... will there be one central directory for common >graphic files (i.e. the tnflag, state map etc.) or should each county keep a >copy with its own graphic files? Fred Smoot is working on this. There will be a page in the main directory (where counties.htm and queries.htm and other pages pertaining to the state are housed) listing all the communal graphics you mentioned, Jack. The graphics will stay in the main directory. He will also explain how to link to them, and if I have this info straight, an illustration of what graphics are there for you to use. >Some other thoughts I would like to share...... > >As HTML is progressing from version 3.2 to 4.0 and both Netscape >and MS are introducing dynamic HTML, JAVAscript, cascade sheets, >and you name it, there are many "neat" things we ca do with our >sites. However we need to keep in mind that not all of our >visitors are using the latest version of Netscape on a Pentium >with 18 megs plus of memory. Even with this brand new computer I have, it doesn't have enough RAM to handle either of the new browsers out. True I should get more RAM and am planning on it, but it took me 4 years to get a new computer, and there are many of our visitors out there that visit our sites through libraries, and some of these libraries don't allow graphics, or many of those "bells and whistles". Who knows, maybe one of those people out there researching the WWW at the library might contain some pertinent information for your county or even be a distant cousin who has that one little piece of information to get you over a deadend. If they can't get to your site for some reason,, everyone one looses on that note. >If we get too "fancy" we can >eliminate a good number of visitors. What I have done (and >recommend others to consider) is that I have two versions of my >pages available - one graphical (with frames, Java, and all the >bells and whistles) and one "text" (basically HTML 2.0 compatible >with no graphics). Another hint here, do you have compressed files on your site? I do for my archived queries to be downloaded. Some people, don't have the ability to download files, a complaint that has been heard regarding the USGENWEB Archived sites. When I heard about that, I changed my system around on my query page, I still have the zip file for convenience of off line reading and downloading, but I also put a text version link for those unable to do this. >I have even had some visitors remark they >like the "text" versions just because they load quicker >and they get to the information sooner. As technology grows by >leaps and bounds we are going to have a wide variety of systems >and user using our sites. The more users/systems we can >accommodate the better in my opinion. It has always been my opinion that people visit your site for the information they can get from there, not for how "jazzy" it may be. Remember that not everyone out there can afford to upgrad their computers, buy a new one or even have one to do their research. Let's not make sites so fancy that we turn people away. Of course, this is JMNSHO <G> Bridgett Bridgett Edwards Smith [email protected] ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~~*~*~* The Bible Family: http://www.rootsweb.com/~bible Home Page: http://www.wizard.com/~bascs/mypage.htm Greene Co TN: http://www.usit.net/tngenweb/greene